Administration, 2018-2019

Kristen Dye | Executive Director

Kristen Dye is a freelance flutist based in Boston. A native of New York, she has been an active performer in New England and Colorado. She is a co-founder of the Aquila Summer Concert Series in Greeley, CO which ties contemporary music in with local businesses. Currently, she teaches elementary band in North Reading, MA.

A strong advocate for contemporary music, Kristen has been a fellow with both the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice (SICPP) in 2014 and the Cortona Sessions for New Music in 2011. She was a founding member of the By the Numbers Soundpainting Ensemble, which has performed throughout the Front Range of Colorado. Kristen also presented her paper, "The Greek Influences in Andre Jolivet's Chant de Linos," at the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the American Musicological Society in 2013.

As a performer, Kristen was a finalist and winner of the Angie Southard Competition in 2011 and 2012, respectively. She earned her BM in Music Education and Performance from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and a MM in Performance and an MM in Musicology from the University of Northern Colorado. Kristen has participated in master classes with Brooke Schoenwald, Carol Wincenc, and Roger Reynolds. Her principal teachers include Christopher Krueger, James Hall, and Jonathan Bellman.

Tim Davis | President and Founder

Dr. Tim Davis brings a variety of management and contemporary concert music experience to his role as president of The Boston New Music Initiative. Tim’s motivation in founding BNMI reflects his long-standing commitment to furthering the careers of composers and musicians. Tim earned his doctorate in composition from the University of Iowa in 2009, and also holds degrees from Boston College and the University of Massachusetts. In addition to his ongoing projects in composition, he has served as a judge for composition competitions with PARMA Recordings, the National Federation of Music Clubs, and on judging panels for BNMI's Calls for Scores. He provides private composition instruction throughout New England, and previously worked as an instructor of theory and aural skills at the University of Iowa.

Tim works full-time as a Project Manager at GreenPages Technology Solutions in Kittery, Maine. He resides on the seacoast in New Hampshire with his wife, soprano Erin M. Smith, and their children Caroline and Jack.

Jacquelyn Stearns | Vice President of Administration

Jacquelyn Stearns is an arts administrator and freelance soprano based in Connecticut. As an advocate for contemporary music, she is thrilled to join BNMI as Vice President of Administration. As an arts administrator, she is passionate about making the arts accessible to all, and bridging the education gap through the performing arts.

Jacquelyn received her Master of Music in Voice Performance from Bowling Green State University and her Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from Western Connecticut State University. During her studies, she was fortunate to collaborate with a variety of composers on new solo voice works and one act operas.

In her free time, she enjoys CrossFit, hiking, traveling, and exploring the most unusual roadside attractions.

Tom Scahill | Membership Director

Tom Scahill joined BNMI when he moved to Boston in August 2012. He currently serves as the Director of Networking and Professional Development. In the spring of 2012, Tom completed a Master of Arts in Music Theory from University of Wisconsin-Madison where he also served as the Composition Co-chair for the Midwest Graduate Music Consortium Conference. Tom also holds degrees from Nazareth College of Rochester (BM, 2010), and Finger Lakes Community College (AS, 2008).

Tom Bishop | Director of Marketing and Development

Tom Bishop studied voice performance and audio engineering at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, graduating in 1996. He regularly plays piano and drum kit with the band King Crockpot, and has written numerous compositions ranging from theatre and choral ensemble to bluegrass. Tom is also an experienced marketing professional focused on business planning and social media. He received his MBA from Boston University in 2002. Tom lives on Boston's north shore with his wife and two children, and spends a lot of his free time running, hiking, kayaking, and coaching.

Artistic Staff, 2017-2018

Beth Ratay | Artistic Director

Beth Ratay has been composing and performing for over 20 years. As a composer, she has had works performed worldwide, by groups like West Edge Opera, Coalescence Percussion Duet, Third Millemium Ensemble, the Phoenix Symphony Chorus and the University of Colorado Wind Ensemble. Her works have been featured at the April in Santa Cruz Contemporary Music Festival, the Women Composers Festival of Hartford and at the Society of Composers, Inc. National Conference.

Dr. Ratay received her Doctor of Musical Arts in Music Composition from the University of California, Santa Cruz, her Master of Music in Music Composition from Arizona State University, and her Bachelor of Music in Music Composition from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her musical research has focused on the music of Harrison Birtwistle as well as text setting, poetic interpretation and the relationship of language to music, especially in Czech, German and English. She has studied with composers David Evan Jones, Paul Nauert, James DeMars, and Michael Theodore.

Joshua Jandreau | Director of Concert Series

Joshua Jandreau is a composer and teacher currently based in Boston, Massachusetts. His music has been performed, premiered, and recorded by orchestras, chamber music groups, and solo artists across the United States, Australia, Germany, and Switzerland. A passionate arts educator, Jandreau currently teaches piano in the greater Boston area and serves as Director of Concert Series for the Boston New Music Initiative. He has been awarded grants to provide music and arts opportunities to students of low-income families, and recently served as a guest speaker at the 2016 Arizona Music Educator Association conference for incorporating technology in the musical classroom.

Receiving numerous academic awards and fellowships, he collaborates with artists, ensembles, and institutions including the Resinosa Ensemble, the Sonic Liberation Players, duo membranophon, the Boston Conservatory Sinfonietta, the Arizona State University Symphony Orchestra, the Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix's “CollabX”, the Generous Ensemble, the Brevard Music Center Orchestra, and many solo artists. When not writing music, he is an avid hiker and winemaker.

David Angelo | Artistic Associate

David Angelo is a Boston-based clarinetist, interested in performing and promoting the music of our time. In his effort to encourage the growth of new music, David has premiered over 70 pieces. Highlights of his performances include playing in Sound Icon and the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, winning the Cortona Sessions Contemporary Performance Competition in 2015, and attending the Toronto Creative Music Lab in 2017 and 2018. In February of 2018, he premiered “Bass Cathedral,” a concerto for clarinet and wind ensemble by Sid Richardson. David recently completed a Master’s Degree in Classical Contemporary Music Performance at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, studying with Michael Norsworthy. He joined BNMI in the summer of 2018.

Avik Chari | Artistic Associate

Avik Chari (b. 1995) is a Singaporean composer of contemporary classical, progressive metal, chill dubstep - anything not mainstream so he can finally buy those hipster glasses he's always wanted to wear. He enjoys composing unusual music in the seclusion of his room, after an adventurous day in the army, rock climbing literally anything (his mom isn't too happy about this), or exploring those rare quiet spots in the hustle and bustle of Singapore/Boston with his girlfriend, Navisha. He aspires to one day create a soundtrack for his own life by starting a video game audio company (#VR). Avik began his escapade into composition at the age of thirteen, where he wrote and transcribed parts for the guitarists and bassist in his band. He went on to write for chamber ensembles, incidental music for dramas and edited parts for the interactive sheet music publisher, TomPlay. After a brief stint in the Singaporean military, he moved to Boston to formally study Composition. Avik is currently an undergraduate student at the Boston Conservatory and has studied with Felipe Lara, Curtis Hughes and Eun Young Lee. His music has been performed by the ADDO Chamber Orchestra, the Boston Conservatory Choruses, and the Vertex Ensemble. He also has a fascination with the role of the music librarian and currently serves/has served at the libraries of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, the Berklee French Film Orchestra and the Vertex Ensemble.

Erin M. Smith | Artistic Director Emeritus and Board of Directors

Erin Smith a founding member of BNMI and served in the position of Artistic Director from 2009-2014. She is a vocal interpreter of opera, oratorio, musical theater, new music, and art song in the Boston area. She has performed with Opera Providence, Cape Code Opera, Boston Opera Collaborative, MetroWest Opera, Boston Metro Opera, The Boston New Music Initiative, Opera del West, The Falmouth Chorale, The Newton Community Chorus, and the Paul Madore Chorale, among others. In addition to performing, Erin is also an experienced voice teacher and music educator, and currently teaches voice as part of The Prodigy Program at Westwood Public Schools and at the Bedford Youth Performing Company in Bedford, New Hampshire. She also teaches elementary classroom music as a Teaching Artist of the Metropolitan Opera Guild's Urban Voices program Erin holds a Bachelor of Music, magna cum laude in Music Education and Voice Performance from Western Michigan University, and earned Pi Kappa Lambda honors and a Master of Arts degree in Voice Performance from the University of Iowa.

Nathan Lofton | Artistic Adviser and Board of Directors

Nathan Lofton enjoys an active career as a conductor, composer, and singer. Nathan has served on the musical staffs of the Boston New Music Initiative, the New England Conservatory Contemporary Ensemble, the Tanglewood Music Center, and the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia. Also a composer and arranger, Nathan’s arrangements have been performed by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the United States Navy Band, and members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, and Canadian Brass. As a professional singer, Nathan has performed with the Boston Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestras at Carnegie Hall, the Lucerne and BBC Proms Festivals, and on PBS’s Great Performances. A native of San Francisco, Nathan is a graduate of the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts, the New England Conservatory, and Temple University. Nathan has studied composition with Michael Gandolfi and Scott Wheeler, and conducting with Paul Rardin, Charles Peltz, and Hugh Wolff. Nathan has participated in conducting masterclasses sponsored by the American Choral Director’s Association, Chorus America, and the Oregon Bach Festival with Simon Halsey, Helmuth Rilling, and Robert Spano.